We have a choice about the world that technology will give us Eating a wedding cake in reverse How long should we expect Google Keep to last? Launching the UK edition of Rapture of the Nerds TODAY at Forbidden Planet London Crocheted skeleton with organs Skype's IP-leaking security bug creates denial-of-service cottage industry Beautiful booze-trailer for sale Phone wars The art and science of beer: a video feature on the "Pope of Foam" A cybersecurity lobbying boom in DC, as congress considers new laws Shepard Fairey talks about some of his favorite YouTube videos A celebration of 'Paris Is Burning' with Peaches Christ and Latrice Royale National Conference for Media Reform coming to Denver, CO, April 5-17 2013 Huffington Post reporter "seeks people who have had sex with aliens" NY judge says running a search engine for news is a copyright violation The $500 Million Gardner Museum Heist, an epic art caper infographic Check out the latest videos on our Boing Boing Video page Guatemala: In 1982, ex-dictator Rios Montt told this documentary filmmaker, "I Control the Army" Prosecutors call for inaccurate groundhog's death Neil DeGrasse Tyson in votive candle form Nenetl of the Forgotten Spirits: indie horror comic Canadian "pipeline" game enrages humourless oilpatch blowhards We have a choice about the world that technology will give us
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 23, 2013 11:31 am Phil Windley, former CTO of Utah and now CTO of a startup called Kynetx, has an inspiring, brief piece on how technologists can help build a technological world where technology helps us live better lives over which we have more control, and how a failure to do something to build this world will give us ...
Read in browser Eating a wedding cake in reverse
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 23, 2013 10:25 am I made this film clip with a great photographer friend of mine and it took two takes. That means I had to eat TWO CAKES.
Read in browser How long should we expect Google Keep to last?
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 23, 2013 09:26 am On the Guardian, Charles Arthur has totted up the lifespan of 39 products and services that Google has killed off in the past due to insufficient public interest. One interesting finding is that Google is becoming less patient with its less popular progeny, with an accelerating trend to killing off products that aren't cutting it. ...
Read in browser Launching the UK edition of Rapture of the Nerds TODAY at Forbidden Planet London
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 23, 2013 01:49 am Hey, Londoners! I'll be launching the UK edition of Rapture of the Nerds today at 1PM at Forbidden Planet. Although the book is available across the country at finer stores, this will be your only chance to stroke the marvellous 3D printed Space Marine Stross and have your picture taken with it.
Read in browser Crocheted skeleton with organs
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 22, 2013 10:39 pm Artist Shanell Papp has a project called "Bawdy," which is about bodies and textiles. The centerpiece is "Lab," a yarn skeleton with a complete set of organs. Lab (skeleton) (via Making Light)
Read in browser Skype's IP-leaking security bug creates denial-of-service cottage industry
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 22, 2013 09:04 pm It's been more than a year since the WSJ reported that Skype leaks its users' IP addresses and locations. Microsoft has done nothing to fix this since, and as Brian Krebs reports, the past year has seen the rise of several tools that let you figure out someone's IP address by searching for him on ...
Read in browser Beautiful booze-trailer for sale
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 22, 2013 06:58 pm From the Neiman-Marcus gift catalog, a trailer that converts into an elaborate, beautiful bar, and comes with a year's supply of Bulleit bourbon and rye. There are two for sale at $150K each, with 10 percent going to an HIV/AIDS charity. A chorus of cheers rings out the minute you pull up. Tailgating will never ...
Read in browser Phone wars
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 22, 2013 06:00 pm Mat Honan has a request: Please Stop Fighting About Your Smartphone. "The phone wars, the platform wars, should be left to people who work for Apple and Samsung and Google and Microsoft and Nokia and BlackBerry. Do you work for Apple? Do you work for Samsung? No? Then shut up." [Wired]
Read in browser The art and science of beer: a video feature on the "Pope of Foam"
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 22, 2013 05:49 pm "How Beer Saved The World," "Why I Tease Those Wine Guys," and "How Bird Poop Makes A More Aromatic Belgian Beer" are but a few tidbits.
Read in browser A cybersecurity lobbying boom in DC, as congress considers new laws
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 22, 2013 05:44 pm Recent actions by Congress and the Obama administration to "protect networks of critical U.S. industries from hackers and cyberspies" have led to an explosive growth opportunity...for lobbyists. Bloomberg reports that there were "513 filings by consultants and companies to press Congress on cybersecurity by the end of 2012, up 85 percent from 2011 and almost ...
Read in browser Shepard Fairey talks about some of his favorite YouTube videos
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 22, 2013 05:42 pm Shepard Fairey selects some of his favorite clips from YouTube, and talks about videos that have inspired him.
Read in browser A celebration of 'Paris Is Burning' with Peaches Christ and Latrice Royale
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 22, 2013 05:17 pm According to Niall Connolly at Dangerous Minds, "If you have not seen Paris Is Burning, you're just not doing it right. I'm talking Life, honey." I've written about Paris Is Burning before, and referenced it in my recent ballroom piece for Boing Boing, but the truth is that the impact of this film on gay ...
Read in browser National Conference for Media Reform coming to Denver, CO, April 5-17 2013
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 22, 2013 05:02 pm Josh Stearns writes, Denver is about to become the epicenter of awesome, when the National Conference for Media Reform comes to town bringing 2,500 coders, journalists, media makers, artists and comedians together to hack the future of tech, media and democracy. • What other event brings together 3D printers and wearable computers with policy debates ...
Read in browser Huffington Post reporter "seeks people who have had sex with aliens"
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 22, 2013 04:43 pm What's of note in this media gossip item is that "15 have responded". If the reporter was filing for Boing Boing, one can assume he'd have a much higher total by now, as many of us have had romantic encounters with extraterrestrials, and it's really not a big deal around here. [romenesko]
Read in browser NY judge says running a search engine for news is a copyright violation
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 22, 2013 04:42 pm A NY federal judge handed down a terrible ruling in AP vs Meltwater, which turned on whether providing a search-engine for newswire articles that showed the first sentence or two of the article was fair use. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Corynne McSherry sums up many of the ways in which this judge got it wrong. ...
Read in browser The $500 Million Gardner Museum Heist, an epic art caper infographic
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 22, 2013 04:40 pm Hilary "chartgirl" Sargent has created another epic infographic, explaining something complicated and interesting: this time, it's the Gardner Museum Heist (background here). Here's the PDF in full-rez glory.
Read in browser Check out the latest videos on our Boing Boing Video page
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 22, 2013 04:27 pm We've gathered fresh video for you to surf and enjoy on the Boing Boing video page. The latest finds for your viewing pleasure include: • Slow motion study reveals the shocking effects of gravity upon our body. • Astounding Beetlejuice roller-coaster made in Minecraft. • Internet-of-Things answering machine from 1992, with marbles. • Supercut of ...
Read in browser Guatemala: In 1982, ex-dictator Rios Montt told this documentary filmmaker, "I Control the Army"
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 22, 2013 03:39 pm An outtake from "Granito:How to Nail a Dictator" which disproves claims by the defense for Guatemalan ex-dictator Rios Montt that he had no control over the Army.
Read in browser Prosecutors call for inaccurate groundhog's death
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 22, 2013 02:41 pm After an unexpectedly cold start to March, authorities in Ohio have called for the indictment and execution of the groundhog whose report promised an early end to winter. "Punxsutawney Phil did purposely, and with prior calculation and design, cause the people to believe that spring would come early," Mike Gmoser, the prosecutor in southwestern Ohio's ...
Read in browser Neil DeGrasse Tyson in votive candle form
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 22, 2013 02:38 pm I can't figure out if this Neil DeGrasse Tyson science-themed votive candle is an article of commerce or not, but man, it should be, oh yes, it should. I Heart Chaos — Hail St. Neil. (via IO9) Update: Buy 'em on Etsy
Read in browser Nenetl of the Forgotten Spirits: indie horror comic
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 22, 2013 02:35 pm Vera Greentea and Laura Muller's "Nenetl of the Forgotten Spirits" is an indie comic (funded by a very successful Kickstarter) that spans four issues. The first issue, just out ($6), is a nice, deceptively gentle entree into what promises to be a proper kick-in-the-teeth bit of horror about the Mexican Day of the Dead. Nenetl ...
Read in browser Canadian "pipeline" game enrages humourless oilpatch blowhards
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 22, 2013 01:26 pm Adam Young sez, A developer made a game that's a spin on the old "waterworks"/"pipe mania" type game with an oil pipeline theme... complete with pixel-art anti-pipeline protesters. Like most indie developers, they were eligible and applied for funding from a variety of sources. They are donating a portion of the proceeds to the David ...
Read in browser Meet SparkTruck, an “educational build-mobile” for the twenty-first century.
Dreamed up by a group of Stanford d.school students and funded through Kickstarter, SparkTruck is a mobile maker space currently traveling across the United States. At schools and summer camps and libraries around the country, the SparkTruck team offers workshops to help kids “find their inner maker” as they design and build projects like stamps, stop-motion animation clips, and “vibrobots.”
[video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmRKXqDwieY&feature=plcp]
This might seem all shiny and new. And it is—but only in part. What’s so striking (and exciting) about SparkTruck is the way it combines old and new. It does so in the tools it gets kids using, which range from pipe cleaners to laser cutters. It does so in its educational approach, which combines cutting-edge (get it?) STEM and design pedagogy with the fundamentals of an old-school shop class. And it does so in its method, which combines the iconic, century-old technology of the bookmobile with the hot new form of the maker space.
In doing so, SparkTruck joins a growing number of libraries which are combining time-tested principles (like equal access to information) with new technologies (like 3-D printers), putting in maker spaces and media production labs alongside bookshelves and meeting rooms. As I’ve argued over on bookmobility.org, these combinations make sense because reading and making actually have a lot in common. They’re both creative processes that take existing materials and combine them in new ways. Getting people engaged in those kinds of processes—through imaginative thinking, contemplation, hands-on problem-solving, and collaborative learning—is what both maker spaces and libraries are all about.
Taking that commitment on the road with scissors and hammers and 3-D printers and a great big bookmobile-like truck, SparkTruck serves as a laboratory for new approaches, as well as a reminder that trying new things doesn’t have to (and probably shouldn’t!) necessarily mean tossing old ones out.
After all, what would those vibrobots be without classically crafty pipe cleaners and tongue depressors? And what would a library be without the creative, participatory, straight-up awesome experience of reading?
SparkTruck schedule [sparktruck.org]
How to arrange a visit from SparkTruck [sparktruck.org]
SparkTruck YouTube channel [youtube.com]
Signature: --Derek Attig, bookmobility.org
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